Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18.djvu/144

130 time, or to any great purpose, while those ministers act under a queen who is so firmly convinced of their zeal and ability for her service, and who is at the same time so thoroughly possessed of her people's hearts. Such a weight will infallibly at length bear down the balance: and, according to the nature of our constitution, it ought to be so; because, when any one of the three powers whereof our government is composed proves too strong for the other two, there is an end of our monarchy. So little are you to regard the crude politicks of those who cried out, "The constitution was in danger," when her majesty lately increased the peerage; without which it was impossible the two houses could have proceeded, with any concert, upon the most weighty affairs of the kingdom.

I know not any quarrels your lordship, as a member of the whig party, can have against the court, except those which I have already mentioned; I mean, the removal of the late ministry, the dismission of the duke of Marlborough, and the present negotiations of peace. I shall not say any thing farther upon these heads; only as to the second, which concerns the duke of Marlborough, give me leave to observe, that there is no kingdom or state in Christendom where a person in such circumstances would have been so gently treated. But it is the misfortune of princes, that the effects of their displeasure are frequently much more publick than the cause: the punishments are in the face of the world, when the crimes are in the dark; and posterity, without knowing the truth of things, may perhaps number us among the ungrateful populace of Greece and Rome, for carding